Housing

University of the Incarnate Word – Dubuis Hall

November 24, 2023 by

Present in Texas since 1867, the Catholic Order of the Incarnate Word purchased in 1897 the 283-acre estate of the late Colonel George Brackenridge, located in San Antonio at the present-day intersection of Broadway and E. Hildebrand. By 1909 “Incarnate Word College” enrolled 125 young women. Accelerating enrollment growth demanded the construction of a dedicated dormitory building, and the Collegiate Gothic-style Dubuis Hall was completed in 1929. Coeducational enrollment began in 1971, and the college was renamed the University of the Incarnate Word in 1996.

Desiring to reposition the never-renovated residence hall as a “freshman dormitory” designed to encourage the development of esprit de corps among incoming college classes, the university approached Crescent Growth Capital once again to determine whether tax credits could allow for a significant subsidy to be derived, to offset the $10 million project cost.

In April 2020, Crescent was hired on a contingent fee-basis to qualify Dubuis Hall for Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credits and monetize the resulting credit award on behalf of UIW. A twin-track process was necessary to accomplish this: 1) Nominate Dubuis Hall to the National Register of Historic Places and 2) Prepare and submit the Texas state historic preservation certification application (Parts A, B and C).

Crescent’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared a four-element Historic Preservation Certification Application (including multiple Part B supplements) over a two-and-a-half-year period, as well as supervising the parallel effort undertaken to individually list Dubuis Hall on the National Register of Historic Places. Subsequent to its National Register listing on May 30, 2023, Crescent received Part C approval from the Texas Historical Commission on June 20, 2023. A lengthy monetization process developed, with Crescent successfully navigating numerous delays to convey net sale proceeds of approximately $2 million to the university in November 2023, representing the fourth discrete UIW capital project for which Crescent has arranged a sizeable subsidy.

St. Ann Square

June 21, 2021 by

Sometimes a setback paves the way for a successful project. Affordable housing developer Providence Community Housing had approached Crescent Growth Capital to determine whether historic tax credit equity could subsidize its planned 53-unit, mixed-income Sacred Heart at St. Bernard housing development. The adaptive re-use of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church (1955) was to be teamed with new construction of an adjacent, four-story building. Unfortunately, the prescribed subdivision of the intact, historic church interior into multiple individual units could not, despite several creative design iterations suggested by Crescent, be squared with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Providence ultimately completed the project, incorporating the former church and including Crescent’s suggested design refinements, but without an HTC subsidy.

Pleased with Crescent Growth Capital’s historic preservation consulting process, its disappointing outcome in that instance notwithstanding, Providence Community Housing was receptive when Crescent reached out in late 2017, in the wake of Providence receiving an award of $7.5 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits. While Providence had not contemplated attempting to incorporate historic tax credit equity into the capital stack for the project in question, a housing development of 59 units for low-income seniors to be called St. Ann Square, Crescent suggested that both federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits could indeed be secured.

St. Ann Square presented considerable complexity from an historic preservation consulting standpoint. The project would combine a rehabilitation of the historic St. Ann Church and School building (1924) and adjacent 19^th century structures – themselves the subject of a federal HPCA process which concluded successfully in 2002 – with the addition of two historic “shotgun” style dwellings sharing the square and the erection of a two-story, newly-constructed apartment building. The multiple historic buildings shared little to no functional relationship during their period of significance – all were contributing elements to the Esplanade Ridge National Register Historic District – which necessitated authoring six individual federal and state HPCAs.

Accordingly, Crescent’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared and submitted no fewer than thirty-seven elements to six federal Historic Preservation Certification Applications over a three-and-a-half year period, also submitting Louisiana State HPCAs in conjunction with the federal application parts. Skillful navigation of the Secretary’s Standards was required, with particular work going into windows, exterior cladding, and the faithful conservation of remaining character-defining elements and intact interior spatial organization.

Part 3 approval for the final building was received on June 15, 2021, at which point some $4 million in federal and state historic tax credit equity had been generated to subsidize the completed $16.5 million St. Ann Square project.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Omaha

August 14, 2018 by

620 S 38th Ave, Omaha, NE 68105

In 1971, Kim Hill, the 5-year old daughter of Philadelphia Eagles’ tight end Fred Hill, was diagnosed with leukemia, and began treatment with oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In the wake of Kim’s successful treatment, the Eagles raised $100,000 through their Eagles Fly for Leukemia philanthropic program to support Dr. Evans’ team at Children’s Hospital. Dr. Evans gratefully accepted the donation, but she also requested that the Eagles consider funding a house in which families of the children in the hospital could get proper rest, away from the hospital. So in October, 1974, Fred Hill, Eagles General Manager Jim Murray and other Eagles teammates co-founded the first Ronald McDonald House, named for the partnership the Eagles organization forged with a local McDonald’s that participated in, and donated to, the Eagles Fly for Leukemia program.

More than four decades later, the Ronald McDonald House organization has expanded significantly, with 365 houses in 64 countries and regions. Given its proximity to one of the best pediatric gastroenterology surgical practices in the country, the RMHC in Omaha supports a much larger footprint than any other RMH in North America, having hosted families from 29 states as well as Mexico. Typical recovery times for these types of surgery result in an average family stay in the RMH of Omaha of around 25 days over the past four years, which is longer than average when compared to other RMH’s around the country

The RMHC offers a variety of programs that are not typically offered in other Ronald McDonald Houses, all of which are aimed at addressing many of the ancillary problems with families’ temporary relocation. The expansion of the RMHC in Omaha will double its footprint to 40,000 sf, as well as its capacity, from 20 to 40 rooms. The new facility will continue to serve a patient base averaging less than $14,000 in annual income, 1/3rd of whom are African-American or Latino families.

An 857 sf classroom will provide the space necessary for classes on GED preparation, financial planning, sibling tutoring, English language, new mother/new baby orientation, and stress and anxiety management. The facility will also offer informational seminars on gastro intestinal rehabilitation, pediatric cancer, pediatric transplants, traumatic injuries, autism, neonatal & premature babies, and pediatric eating disorders.

Once the expansion is completed, RMHC in Omaha will be the only RMH in the world with an on-site clinic, offering 4 infusion bed treatment rooms for children with impaired immune systems to receive their infusion treatments in a controlled environment, greatly reducing the risk of exposure resulting from ambulance transportation to and from the Medical Campus. Staffed and managed by Nebraska Medicine, the 2,995 sf clinic keeps the child on-site, where family and loved-ones are close at hand in a “home-like” environment, reducing the psychological stress on the patient before, during and after treatment.

The facility has partnered with Angels Among Us, a local non-profit that supports children and families affected by pediatric cancer, providing financial support such as covering rent or mortgage payments, utilities, car lease and insurance payments, medical and prescription drug costs, daycare and just about any other costs associated with families’ extended time away from work and home.

In May of 2018, RMHC hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the expansion. Having already secured cash donations, pledges, and bank loan commitments totaling $8.5 million, Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with both Nebraska State NMTC allocation and Federal NMTC allocation. In August of 2018, Crescent and RMHC closed on $4.8M of Nebraska State NMTCs provided by Brownsfield Revitalization, $4.8M of Nebraska State NMTCs provided by Consortium America, and $6.0M of Federal NMTCs provided by Consortium America, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by US Bank. The Nebraska State and Federal NMTC subsidies will go towards construction overruns, along with a variety of “wish list” items that would have been contemplated in subsequent phases, such as internal communications systems, support for transportation services, relocation costs, and tenant improvements for Nebraska Medicine and Angels Among Us.

St. John’s Masonic Apartments (Opelousas Apartments)

August 7, 2017 by

Freemasonry occupies a storied place in American history, representing an influential subset of the body politic: fraternal social organizations independent of any political or religious authority. St. John’s Masonic Temple, located within the Algiers Point National Register Historic District in New Orleans, documents that neighborhood’s participation in the surge of Masonic Temple construction that occurred throughout the United States in the 1920s. Its completion in 1926 coincided with other Masonic initiatives throughout the city, including the erection of the impressive, twenty-story Grand Lodge of Louisiana headquarters at 333 St. Charles Avenue (now a hotel).

St. John’s both evidences Freemasonry’s impact upon New Orleans and serves as an excellent example of the spare, art deco-influenced neoclassicism of the 1920s. Here, Sam Stone’s design is notable for the intricate brickwork of differing bonds executed for decorative effect, a principal element of the handsomely-finished exterior that is, overall, almost completely unaltered from its original appearance.

By the time the New Orleans Redevelopment Fund acquired the building in 2014, its use as the gathering place for a fraternal organization was decades in the past. The Masons vacated 620 Opelousas after World War II; it subsequently served as a neighborhood post office for many years. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the building was acquired for conversion into multifamily housing, but the development stalled after the completion of much interior demolition, the insertion of new wooden framing and MEP elements, and the addition of interior steel stairs.

NORF hired Crescent Growth Capital to provide contingent fee-based historic preservation consulting and historic tax credit monetization services, in support of its $3.6 million redevelopment of St. John’s Masonic into ten market-rate apartments.

Crescent’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared a four-element Historic Preservation Certification Application over a thirty-month period, submitting Louisiana State HPCAs in conjunction with the federal application parts. Part 3 approval was received on April 28, 2017, with state historic tax credit monetization accomplished by Crescent and tax credit sale proceeds delivered to NORF in July.

For the second time in nearly as many years, Crescent Growth Capital’s historic preservation consulting work was honored by the Louisiana Landmarks Society, as Opelousas Apartments received an Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation in 2019.

St. Margaret’s Daughters Home

September 8, 2011 by

Mercy Hospital New Orleans was founded in 1924 and relocated to the Mid-City neighborhood in 1953 (pictured above is the original main facade of the 1953 hospital building). For over fifty years this facility was a principal institutional actor and employment center within both the Museum-City Park Cultural District and the Mid-City National Register Historic District.

Subsequent to the Katrina-induced levee failures in 2005, Tenet Healthcare – which had been operating the facility as Lindy Boggs Medical Center – opted not to reopen it.

In 2007, a demolition permit was secured by the hospital’s new owners; however, their plans for a mixed-use town center stalled. Three years later, in May of 2010, Crescent Growth Capital arranged an NMTC financing on behalf of St. Margaret’s Daughters Home to purchase the entire blighted, abandoned facility.

The redevelopment of the former Mercy Hospital/Lindy Boggs Medical Center in New Orleans by St. Margaret’s Daughters Home is a multi-phase project whose first manifestation will be the adaptive re-use of the hospital’s medical office buildings to accommodate a new permanent nursing home facility for St. Margaret’s.

Crescent Growth Capital structured and closed a $21.3 million New Markets Tax Credit qualified equity investment to fund both St. Margaret’s acquisition of the entire former hospital and a portion of the construction cost of its new nursing home within the facility. Subsequent phases will rehabilitate the remainder of the former Mercy facility for medical uses.

In addition to structuring the initial financial closing in 2010, Crescent Growth Capital, in conjunction with its consultants, secured Louisiana State Historic Tax Credit eligibility for the entire former Mercy/Lindy Boggs complex, garnering millions in historic tax credit equity for the project. The first state historic tax credit financing for the project was accomplished in September of 2011, generating $4 million for St. Margaret’s and enabling the definitive start of construction on Phase I.

CGC, in conjunction with its consultants, also secured for St. Margaret’s $3 million in CDBG funding, in the wake of a successful application to the State of Louisiana’s Project-Based Recovery Opportunity Program (“PROP”). Financial closing on these funds was achieved in July of 2011.

Belleville Assisted Living Facility

May 18, 2011 by

Restoring job growth to the nation’s economy is the primary objective of policymakers today, and most economists believe that the most significant opportunities for new employment will be found within the healthcare industry. The boomer generation is aging, and the percentage of the nation’s population that is over age 65 is anticipated to increase appreciably in the coming 50 years, generating steady growth in demand for healthcare. Furthermore, ever-increasing longevity on the part of the nation’s elderly, coupled with the geographical fragmentation of the extended family has meant that demand for assisted living services is growing at an even faster rate than demand for healthcare overall.

Like the nation as a whole, New Orleans is in need of additional assisted living capacity, and, in the wake of Katrina, there is an insufficient supply of entry-level job opportunities available to disadvantaged individuals. Crescent Growth Capital was able to help address both challenges by structuring and closing the financing to fund the construction of the new Belleville Assisted Living Facility. The Belleville ALF will provide 53 badly-needed assisted living units in a 55,000 square-foot facility, while simultaneously creating nearly 50 jobs and returning to commerce a historic but blighted school building in New Orleans’ Algiers Point National Register Historic District.

The Belleville ALF is located on New Orleans’ West Bank, across the Mississippi River from the city’s historic core. Extensive development on the West Bank did not begin until the late 1950s, with the completion of the Greater New Orleans Bridge linking downtown to Algiers. For the next thirty years, the West Bank offered middle-income families new, affordable housing, extensive employment opportunities, and plentiful shopping. Conditions began to sour, however, in the wake of the mid-1980s Oil Bust. In a matter of months, the West Bank suffered tens of thousands of job losses; in the succeeding twenty years, poverty, crime and disinvestment increasingly characterized what had been a stereotypically prosperous American suburb.

Belleville ALF constitutes a significant and visible investment on the West Bank. A former elementary school that had lain dormant for over thirty years will be rehabilitated and restored to commerce. The historic fabric extant on the property will be adaptively re-used, embodying the highest aspirations of the green building movement – as there is no greener building than a re-used building. The region’s shortage of assisted living capacity, acutely felt on the West Bank, will be meaningfully eased by Belleville’s 53-unit facility. Most significantly, nearly fifty new jobs will be created, over half of which will be entry-level positions ideal for the West Bank’s disadvantaged low-income population.

Despite demonstrable demand for additional assisted living units, the New Orleans West Bank is considered a challenging location for market rate investment; conventional lenders had been unwilling to underwrite the entire cost of the Belleville facility. In response, Crescent Growth Capital and the principals of the Belleville ALF project devised a capital stack that took advantage of the location’s existing historic fabric as well as the highly-distressed character of the contemplated investment to integrate federal and state historic tax credit equity with the New Markets Tax Credit financing structure.

The tax credit equity generated by this structure lowered the project’s borrowing requirements and enabled the successful underwriting of a smaller conventional loan. Without the use of tax credit equity, it would have been impossible to secure funding sufficient to complete the project.

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